Darlington RFC 0 - 60 Durham City RFC U11's

Darlington RFC 0 – 60 Durham City RFC

On the opening fixture of the season, the weather was outstanding which matched the rugby from both the City squads and a spirited display by the Darlington squad, particularly at the start of the second game. Many thanks to Darlington for hosting us and agreeing to two 20 minute periods and giving all our players the opportunity to play some rugby. After 5 weeks of training and missing 4 boys who were on the Prep Schools North Barbarians trial, City met the challenge in both games of the bigger and imposing players of Darlington RFC.

1st Period: Blue Squad – Owen Chaplin, Tom Hetherington, John Berriman, Max Blackbourne, David Gardiner, Jared Warby, Alfie Forbes, Thai Clark, Mark Humphries

Playing with the slope advantage, City started strongly and kept the pressure on Darlington pinning them back in their own half for much of this first period. The forwards worked well together with driving runs from Owen, Tom and John, sucking in the defence and allowing Max and David to launch the back line with constant attacks from Jared, Alfie, Thai and Mark. City were strong in defence and kept the pressure on Darlington, not allowing them gather any momentum or given them any space to threaten the City try line. This first City squad kept the pressure up and finished the first period up 25 – 0, with a try each from Jared and Max, and a hat-trick from David.

2nd Period: Gold Squad - Nick Marsden, Ben Speight, Matthew Ward, Felix Hawes, Niall Butler , Owen Thomas, Joel England, David Barnett, James Hindmarsh, James Bowman

With a complete change at half time, Darlington started strongly, playing with the slope this time, and kept the pressure on the changed City squad, with much of the initial period played in our own half. Strong tackling and more competition at the breakdown from the Darlington squad kept the pressure on, until City started to keep the ball alive more and looked to attack the wings. Eventually, the first of the seven 2nd period tries came, and despite a gusty performance from all the Darlington squad who never gave up, City finished strongly with some of the best tries of the game scored during this period.
The 2nd period try scorers were Matthew, Ben, Niall, Nick, Owen, Joel and David Barnett.

Final Score: Darlington RFC 0 – 60 Durham City RFC

Coach David Gardiner “thanks to all the boys for their fantastic work on Sunday. For a first fixture they showed great composure, structure to their game and the same desire to play as we've always seen. Within the 12 tries to nil, it was excellent to see that we had tries scored by 10 different boys, and everyone on the field contributed significantly to creating those scoring opportunities”.

Match Report: Graeme Humphries